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PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



-OF THE — 



MONITOR and MERRIMAC 



ENGAGEMENT, 



AND DESTRUCTION OF TUN 



CONGRESS and CUMBERLAND. 



A PAPER READ BEFORE THE COMMANDERY OF NEW YORK, MILITARY 
ORDER, LOYAL LEGION, UNITED STATES, 



MAY 5, 1886, 



BY 



Companion Medical Director CHARLES MARTIN, 

U. S. NAVY (RETIRED). 



NEW YORK. 

1886. 









•OZ 



MACGOWAN & SLIPPEK, 

printers, 

\<.. 30 Beekman Street, New York. 



ENGAGEMENT 



MONITOR AND MERRIMAC. 



Companions : I will tell you what I saw at Newport 
News when the Merrimac destroyed the Congress and 
Cumberland, and fought with the Monitor. It was a 
drama in three acts, and twelve hours will elapse 
between the second and third acts. 

'"Let us begin at the beginning" — 1861. The North 
Atlantic squadron is at Hampton Roads, except the 
frigate Congress and the razee Cumberland ; they are 
anchored at Newport News, blockading the James River 
and Norfolk. The Merrimac, the Rebel ram, is in the 
dry dock of the Norfolk navy yard ; for, after the unsuc- 
cessful attempt at the outbreak of the rebellion to burn 
the yard and the men-of-war lying there, it was aban- 
doned to the enemy, leaving them in possession of the 
accumulation of arms and ammunition which served as 
an outfit for the army of the Confederacy ; and they 
utilized the half-burned frigate Merrimac, cut her down, 
gave her a short, powerful ram capable of doing much 
harm to our ships, they built over her a sloping roof of 
railroad iron, they made her a floating bomb-proof, and 
when afloat she looked like an old-fashioned barn sub- 
merged to the eaves. And, besides her three broadside 
guns, she had a port and a heavy gun in each gable. 

The Monitor is building; in New York City. She is a 
secret, and passes are given to visit the shipyard where 
she is building, and a young Copperhead takes advan- 
tage of frequent opportunities; lie makes sketches and 



notes of her dimensions,. etc., lie carries them with him 
down into Dixey. This treachery is indirectly a cause 
of safety to the Monitor. The notes show the Confeder- 
ate Government that the ram of the Merrimac is too 
short, it cannot reach the hull of the Monitor under her 
overhang. They lengthen the ram, and are well aware 
that in doing so they have weakened it, and it is 
determined to keep the Merrimac in the dry dock, wait 
the arrival of the Monitor, send her out to- meet her, and 
in the action it is positive that an opportunity will offer 
to pierce and sink her. The ram is a terror, and both 
sides say, "When the Merrimac comes out!" The last 
of February, 1802, the Monitor is ready for sea; she 
will sail for Hampton Roads in charge of a steamer. 
There is a rumor that she has broken her steering gear 
before reaching Sandy Hook. She will be towed to 
Washington for repairs. The Rebel spies report her a 
failure — steering defective, turret revolves with diffi- 
culty, and when the smoke of her guns in action is 
added to the defects of ventilation, it will be impossible 
for human beings to live aboard of her. No Monitor to 
light, the Southern press and people grumble; they pitch 
into the Merrimac. Why does she lie idle? Send her out 
to destroy the Congress and the Cumberland, that have 
so long bullied Norfolk, then sweep away the fleet at 
Hampton Roads, starve out Fortress Monroe, go north 
to Baltimore and New York and Boston, and destroy 
and plunder; and the voice of the people, not always an 
inspiration, prevails, and the ram is floated and manned 
and armed, and March 8 is bright and sunny when she 
steams down the Elizabeth River to carry out the first 
part of her programme. And all Norfolk and Ports- 
mouth ride and run to the bank of the James, to have 
a picnic, and assist at a naval battle and victory. The 
cry of "Wolf!" has so often been heard aboard the ships 
that the Merrimac has lost much of her terrors. They 



argue, " If she is a success, why don't she come out and 
destroy us ? " And when seen this morning at the month 
of the river, " It is only a trial trip or a demonstration." 
But she creeps along the opposite shore, and both ships 
beat to quarters, and get ready for action. The boats 
of the Cumberland are lowered, made fast to each other 
in line, anchored between the ship and the shore, about 
an eighth of a mile distant. 

Here are two large sailing frigates, on a calm day, at 
slack water, anchored in a narrow channel, impossible to 
get under weigh and maneuver, and must lie and ham- 
mer, and be hammered, so long as they hold together, or 
until they sink at their anchors. To help them is a tug, 
the Zouave, once used in the basin at Albany to tow 
canal boats under the grain elevator. The Congress is 
the senior ship ; the tug makes fast to her. The Con- 
gress slips her cable and tries to get under weigh. The 
tug does her best and breaks her engine. The Congress 
goes aground in line with the shore. The Zouave floats 
down the river, firing her pop-guns at the Merrimac as 
she drifts by her. The captain of the Congress was 
detached on the 7th. He is waiting a chance to go north. 
He serves as a volunteer in the action, refusing to resume 
command and deprive the first lieutenant of a chance 
for glory. The captain of the Cumberland has been 
absent since the 3d. He is president of a court-martial 
at this moment in session on board the Roanoke at 
Hampton Roads, so the command of both the ships 
devolves on the first lieutenants. On board the Cum- 
berland all hands are allowed to remain on deck, watch- 
ing the slow approach of the Merrimac, and she comes 
on so slowly, the pilot declares she has missed the 
channel, she draws too much water to use her ram. She 
continues to advance, and two gun-boats, the Yorktown 
and the Teazer, accompany her. Again they beat to 
quarters, and every one goes to his station. There is a 



6 

platform on the roof of the Merrimac. Her captain is 
standing on it. When she is near enough, he hails, "Do 
y< >u surrender ? " " Never ! " is the reply. The order to 
fire is given, the shot of the starboard battery rattles 
on the iron roof of the Merrimac. She answers with a 
shell, it sweeps the forward pivot gun, it kills and 
wounds ten of the gun's crew. A second slaughters the 
marines at the after pivot gun. The Yorktown and 
Teazer keep up a constant fire. She bears down on the 
Cumberland. She rams her just aft the starboard bow. 
The ram goes into the sides of the ship as a knife goes 
into a cheese. The Merrimac tries to back out, the tide 
is making, it catches against her great length at a right 
angle with the Cumberland, it slews her around, the 
weakened lengthened ram breaks off, she leaves it in the 
Cumberland. The battle rages, broadside answers broad 
side, and the sanded deck is red and slippery with the 
blood of the wounded and dying, they are dragged amid- 
ships out of the way of the guns, there is no one and 
no time to take them below. Delirium seizes the crew ; 
they strip to their trousers, tie their handkerchiefs 
round their heads, kick off their shoes, fight and yell 
like demons, load and fire at will, and keep it up for the 
rest of the forty two minutes the ship is sinking, and 
fire a last gun as the water rushes into her ports. 

The order comes, "Save who can !" The ship sinks 
head foremost, she lists over to port, the water is ankle 
deep on the berth deck, the ladders unship, it is a 
scramble to the spar deck, a rush overboard, the boats 
pick up the swimmers. The after pivot gun, pivoted to 
starboard, breaks loose, it rushes dowu the decline of the 
deck like a furious animal, a man is in the track, he falls, 
the gun is on him, crushes him, bounds overboard ; there 
is a mass of mangled fiesh on the deck. The ship sinks 
lo her tops. The boats pull for shore, a shell knocks 
away the head of the wharf as the boats approach it. 



/ 



The saved land. Instead of a defeat, it is a victory. The 
whole camp is rusting to meet them, with cheers, with 
embraces ; the soldiers bring to comfort them the first 
thing they lay hold of, many of them the panaceas 
whisky and tobacco. The sailors are clothed and fed 
and warmed — they have reached home. And no sur- 
vivor will ever forget the loving kindness of our com- 
panion, the colonel of the Zouaves, and the officers and 
men of that regiment and of the Troy regiment stationed 
at Newport News — they gave their all, and gave it 
twice the way they gave it. 

In every man-of-war exist Jonathan and David, Damon 
and Pythias friendships, called chummies. In the begin- 
ning of the action a man hopelessly wounded is lowered 
down into the cockpit ; later on his chummy, with a flesh 
wound of his arm, goes below to have it dressed and to 
see his friend. As he leans over him, the dying man 
says, "Don't leave me, Johnny;" and Johnny sits down 
by him, takes him in his arms, stays with him, goes 
down with him — and surely much was forgiven them. 

The Merrimac turns to the Congress. She is aground, 
but she fires her guns till the red-hot shot from the 
enemy sets her on fire, and the flames drive the men 
away from the battery. ' She has forty years of season- 
ing, she burns like a torch. Her commanding officer is 
killed, and her deck strewn with killed and wounded. 
The wind is off shore; they drag the wounded under 
the windward bulwark, where all hands take refuge from 
the flames. The sharpshooters on shore drive away a 
tug from the enemy. The crew and wounded of the 
Congress are safely landed. She burns the rest of the 
afternoon and evening, discharging her loaded guns over 
the camp. At midnight the fire has reached her maga- 
zines — the Congress disappears. 

When it is signaled to the fleet at Hampton Roads 
that the Merrimac has come out, the Minnesota leaves 



\ 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



her anchorage and hastens to join the ba 013 701 209 
puts her aground off the Elizabeth River, and she lies 
there helpless. The Merrimac has turned back for Nor- 
folk. She has suffered from the shot of the Congress 
and Cumberland, or she would stop and destroy the 
Minnesota; instead, with the Yorktown and Teazer, she 
goes back into the river. Sunday morning, March 9, the 
Merrimac is coming out to finish her work. She will 
destroy the Minnesota. As she nears her, the Monitor 
appears from behind the helpless ship ; she has slipped 
in during the night, and so quietly, her presence is 
unknown in the camp. And David goes out to meet 
Goliath, and every man who can walk to the beach sits 
down there, spectators of the first iron-clad battle in the 
world. The day is calm, the smoke hangs thick on the 
water, the low vessels are hidden by the smoke. They 
are so sure of their invulnerability, they fight at arms' 
length. They fight so near the shore, the flash of their 
guns is seen, and the noise is heard of the heavy shot 
pounding the armor. They haul out for breath, and 
again disappear in the smoke. The Merrimac stops 
firing, the smoke lifts, she is running down the Monitor, 
but she has left her ram in the Cumberland. The Moni- 
tor slips away, turns, and renews the action. One P. M. 
—they have fought since 8:30 A. M. The crews of both 
ships are suffocating under the armor. The frames sup- 
porting the iron roof of the Merrimac are sprung and 
shattered. The turret of the Monitor is dented wiili 
shot, and is revolved with difficulty. The captain of the 
Merrimac is wounded in the leg; the captain of the 
Monitor is blinded with powder. It is a drawn game. 
The Merrimac, leaking badly, goes back to Norfolk ; the 
Monitor returns to Hampton Roads. 



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